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Production of Extracellular Hydrogen Peroxide and Peroxidase by Wood-Rotting Fungi. Jerome W. Koenigs, Principal Plant Pathologist, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, USDA Forest Service, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709; Phytopathology 62:100-110. Accepted for publication 5 August 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-62-100.

Extracellular H2O2 formed by pathogenic and nonpathogenic wood-rotting fungi was detected on two malt extract-heated blood media and by inactivation of a catalase-aminotriazole system. Peroxidase was measured spectrophotometrically. All of 30 species produced some H2O2 on blood agar, and 30 of 32 did so from glucose in the catalase-aminotriazole system; brown rot fungi produced more H2O2 from glucose than did white rot fungi. No brown rot fungus produced extracellular peroxidase in 3 weeks, but individual isolates of Lentinus lepideus and Coniophora puteana did so later; 11 of 23 species of white rot fungi secreted peroxidase. This appears to be the first report of the formation of free extracellular H2O2 by fungi. This H2O2 may be involved in plant pathogenesis and in degradation of plant constituents by wood-destroying fungi.

Additional keywords: pathogenesis.